


A Name for the Winners in the World

by honeysucklepink



Series: The Gameday 'Verse [5]
Category: 17776: What Football Will Look Like in the Future - Jon Bois, Glee
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Fluff and Angst, Immortality, Implied Sexual Content, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-18
Updated: 2017-07-18
Packaged: 2018-12-02 07:15:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,598
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11504385
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/honeysucklepink/pseuds/honeysucklepink
Summary: It's fifteen thousand years later; football still exists, albeit in vastly different ways, and Kurt and Blaine are still going strong (and have at least one interstellar fanboy).





	A Name for the Winners in the World

**Author's Note:**

  * For [spaceorphan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/spaceorphan/gifts).



> So, if you haven't read Jon Bois's "17776: What Football Will Look Like in the Future," go do that, because otherwise some things will a) be spoiled, or b) not make a lot of sense. Basically humanity is immortal and plays football all the time, and three space probes watching from afar talk about it. 
> 
> If you haven't ever watched Glee, just know that Kurt and Blaine were the endgame couple of that show; in canon they got married, had Broadway careers, and had a daughter via their best friend/surrogate, Rachel.
> 
> Okay so that's enough housekeeping. Thanks to nadiacreek and notarelationship for the betas, and Happy Birthday @spaceorphan18!

Kurt and Blaine hadn't noticed at first when everyone stopped aging and dying. It was very subtle. They saw news stories about miraculous cures; cancer patients would go in for chemotherapy, only to find that there was no sign of cancer anymore. It was hard to believe, until it happened to Burt.

Then, when they decided to give Tracy a little brother or sister, every attempt at IVF failed. They even got stupid drunk one night and tried to do it "the old fashioned way" with Rachel (with Jesse's blessing, after they also had tried for kid number three of their own with no luck). When they found out it was happening to everyone, they gave up.

Both continued to work on Broadway, as long as Broadway was still above sea level, anyway. They had no trouble getting roles, and yet they were always looking ahead to the time when they would no longer be able to take those younger parts. No one wanted an old and gray Tony, or Seymour, or Hedwig. Someday they'd have to play older...J.B. Biggly, Albert Peterson, Larry Murphy, maybe even King Lear before they retired. That time never came. Even when the water levels rose and the theatre community relocated to Chicago, everyone had to start using prosthetic makeup for those roles. Shows like _Matilda_ and _School of Rock_ scrambled to find short actors who could play the child roles.

When they went to visit Burt and Carole one time in Lima, Blaine fainted and Kurt nearly called the police, until the young couple in their twenties who he thought had broken into their home were able to convince him that they WERE Burt and Carole.

Tracy grew to her twenties as a stunningly beautiful woman, with blue-green eyes, porcelain skin, and dark wavy hair from her birth mom. As she went on to her thirties, forties, fifties... she still looked the same. A stranger unaware of the phenomenon that happened in 2026 would mistake her and her dads for siblings.

Tracy also inherited Blaine's love of football. She played in local leagues, then went on to regional play. In her latest text to her dads she was waiting patiently in Reno, Nevada; one of her contacts had told her the odds of a Denali 500 ball landing in the area were pretty high. They were proud of their girl, and after several thousand years, decided "why not?" and joined some games as well. The game was no longer the same as it had been when Kurt was a one-game kicker in high school. The bullying aspect had long ago faded, along with war, disease and poverty, after all. Besides, they were ready for a break from the theatre. At the moment they were part of a defensive line in Game 3887.

"I wonder how long Nancy will be hiding out," Kurt said, as he lay in the bed of a pickup on top of a pile of blankets, staring at the stars. They were several miles southwest of Homer, Nebraska. "I imagine the tornado tossed her pretty good."

Blaine was checking his phone for news. "I think she was stopped in Bee last, but the D-Line coach said she might head this way...oh, _no_."

"No, what?"

Blaine let his arm go slack, the phone landing between them. "They launched the 500 ball."

"I'm guessing from your tone it didn't land in Reno."

"Worse, California, and it smashed right into the Livermore Light Bulb."

"That...isn't that the one that's been on since the 1900s?" Blaine nodded in confirmation. Kurt gasped, "Oh my God. That's...we thought that thing would burn forever! Um...I'm assuming someone caught the ball?"

"That's the saddest part. Closest player? _Lacretia Evans_."

"Damn, that's just...poor girl, she has the worst luck. Finally gets a ball and it's the one that kills the eternal bulb...god, I haven't felt like this in...well, so long."

They laid next to each other, silent for a moment.

"You ever think?" Blaine broke the quiet. "About..."

"Yeah."

Blaine nodded. Then: "You know, Finn would have been the best damn quarterback in the league right now. He just played with, gosh..."

"So much _heart_ ," Kurt finished for him. "I remember how sad Finn was when he didn't get a scholarship. It wasn't just the college prospects, he genuinely loved the game. When he gave me a chance to try out, I know it wasn't just so I could try to fit in. He saw my potential and talent, and believed in me." Tears started to well in Kurt's eyes, and he sniffed.

Blaine reached his hand out to touch his shoulder. "Kurt..."

"Twelve years!" Kurt cried, sitting up and in one swift move leaping over and out of the pickup bed. "Twelve years and I had almost gotten used to it, you know? I didn't even _know_ him for twelve years, but he was still _my brother_ , and one day it's 'oh, guess what, everyone lives forever now, except if you died before then, wow timing sucks doesn't it?' It's so unfair!"

Kurt felt Blaine's arms wrap around him, and he collapsed in the field row and sobbed and sobbed until it was out of his system.

"You okay?" Blaine asked. "Been a couple hundred years since you've had a good cry like that."

Kurt wiped his cheek with the back of his shirt sleeve. "Yeah, I'm good. I don't think I'm ready to get back in the truck though."

"Okay," Blaine said. He went back to the truck to retrieve a couple of blankets from the back, then arranged them on the ground for the both of them.

Kurt curled up and shifted so his back was against Blaine’s chest. “You’d think I would be just as upset about my mom, you know? I mean I was only eight, but other than her perfume, and her voice, most of what I remember is her being so sick. If she had lived, she’d be healthy. I should be just as mad about her not being here as I am Finn. But I’m not. Maybe I had more time to get used to it, being so young.” Kurt shrugged, a signal that he didn’t know what else to say, and as Blaine pulled him in tight they drifted off to sleep.

An hour later they awoke to an alert from Blaine's phone. Blaine blinked the sleep from his eyes to look at the screen.

Kurt leaned over his shoulder to look. "Have they found Nancy?"

"No, it's Burt. They just wanted to check in before going to bed. Said the new BoJangles at Mile High is actually pretty good though the green beans are a little soggy."

"I'm glad they were able to get one of those rentals. Close to the action without all the traveling. I mean, I know they're in as great a shape as we are and the nanos protect them, just..."

"You'll always worry about them, that will never change. One of the many things I love about you, Kurt." Blaine kissed him softly on the lips. Then another, a little longer. "So, it's probably gonna be a while before the rest of the D-line finds us out here..." Blaine started to toy with the buttons on Kurt's shirt. "What do you say? Making love, under the stars..."

Kurt looked up at his husband and batted his eyelashes. "Why, Mr. Anderson-Hummel, you expect me to just roll around in a Nebraska corn field with you?"

"Centuries later, and I still love hearing 'Anderson-Hummel' from those lips," Blaine smiled. "And Kurt I'm pretty sure we have had sex in every possible place, and in every conceivable position."

"You might think so. But not _every_ place." Kurt kissed Blaine's neck. "I don't think we've ever been in this _exact_ field." Kurt hiked up Blaine's shirt and sucked a kiss to his chest while rolling him onto his back. "And even if we have, not this _exact_ row," he continued, kissing Blaine's stomach, and going lower...

Blaine lifted his hips as Kurt pulled his pants down. "Oh... _Kurt_..."

 

###

 

Juice, let Kurt and Blaine have some privacy.

aw but it was just getting good klaine was gonna

I know what they were about to do. Boy, for a sentient space probe you sure are a pervy voyeur.

its no different than listening in on the durabos conversations

.

Oh, God, you're not watching THEM have sex too, are you?

.

.

no?

Wait, wait, someone please fill me in...what's a 'Klaine?' Is that another space probe like us?

whats a klaine? _what's a_...oh my god you were launched in 1968 shit stonewall hadnt even happened yet

Oh, boy, here we go...

dont give me that ten. you love them too

Sure, I do, who wouldn't love Klaine? But you have a tendency to go on, and on, and on...

youre acting like im gonna talk about game 27 again

That's different, because Game 27 is the most stupid, _moronic,_ **_idiotic thing in existence!_ **

Hello, I'm still here, is no one going to tell me what a Klaine is?!?!"

.

.

Go ahead.

Thank you. Now, my dear newly-born-to-sentience Nine...

Oh, proper punctuation and capitalization again!

...

Sorry, won't interrupt again. Keep going.

Yeah, _anyway_ , Nine, do you like love stories?

Sure, I guess? I mean, if they have happy endings, I like them.

Well then let me tell you about the greatest love story of the last 15,000 years. Back in 2009, in Lima, Ohio, there was a lonely boy named Kurt..."

 

**Author's Note:**

> I took the title from a line from Steely Dan's "Deacon Blue." 17776ers will know Steely Dan has a couple of appearances in the original story. Football fans may know WHY I chose this song:
> 
> "They got a name for the winners in the world  
> And I want a name when I lose  
> They call Alabama the Crimson Tide  
> Call me Deacon Blue"


End file.
